德国第二大通讯社关闭

 　　BERLIN, April 11 (Xinhua) -- DAPD, the second largest news agency in Germany, ended its operation Thursday afternoon. Nearly 200 employees lost their jobs.

　　Petra Hilgers, the insolvency¹ administrator² for the ailing³ agency, announced in a staff meeting in Berlin that efforts to find investors⁴ had failed. At 17:00, the two-year-old agency stopped offering news service to its customers.

　　DAPD currently had about 175 permanent employees. German Journalists' Association chairman Michael Konken called the shut-down "a disaster for the editors and freelance journalists of DAPD."

　　"This is a loss for media diversity in our country," he said, asking other media to consider offering job opportunities for former DAPD staff. "They deserve a second chance," said Konken.

　　Since it filed for bankruptcy⁵ in October 2012, DAPD has been making efforts to find new investors. Russian news agency RIA Novosti was seen as the last hope for the insolvent⁶ agency. Their negotiation⁷, however, was cancelled recently.

　　Founded in September 2010 after a merge⁸ of former West Germany news agency DDP and the German branch of American news agency Associated Press, DAPD had been trying to strengthen its position in the competitive German market of news agencies, which includes Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA), French Agence France Presse (AFP) and the group of Thomson Reuters.

　　DAPD news agency's bankruptcy came as a surprise as it declared an expansion in 2011, buying French photo agency Sipa Press in July and started a sports service a month later. In January 2012, DAPD announced to open a news service in France, with a purchase of AP's French service.

1 insolvency   

n.无力偿付，破产

参考例句：

• The company is on the verge of insolvency.该公司快要破产了。
• Normal insolvency procedures should not be applied to banks.通常的破产程序不应当适用于银行。

2 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

3 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

6 insolvent   

adj.破产的，无偿还能力的

参考例句：

• They lost orders and were insolvent within weeks.他们失去了订货，几周后就无法偿还债务。
• The bank was declared insolvent.银行被宣布破产。

7 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

8 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。